Is cooperation always better than competition?

No—collaboration isn't always the best move, but it's always an option worth considering before fighting.

Where can value-building relationships exist beyond customers?

In relationships with suppliers, investors, employees, and even competitors.

Consider Your Alternatives before Fighting For a Niche

You’re locked in a market fight, pushing for every inch of margin. It feels like the only way to win is to outmaneuver the competition. But what if the real win isn’t about fighting harder, but about finding a way to not fight at all? Often, cooperation lets everyone get the value they want—if both parties understand their goal and how they both win.

When you tackle a problem or map out a strategy to hit your objectives, the clearest path often stays hidden. We don't take the time to truly understand our goal or build the best strategy. Instead, we just chase our goal with the same playbook everyone else uses, expecting a different outcome. Does that track?
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I once read about a professor's classroom experiment. He asked students to pair up for an arm-wrestling match. The goal: bend your opponent's arm onto the table as many times as possible in 30 seconds.

After the intense arm-wrestling, the teacher asked for their scores. Most pairs reported 2 or 3 bends. But a couple stood out. Their reply: 100.

How? They decided to cooperate instead of compete. They offered no resistance to each other’s efforts. They just flipped arms back and forth.

This winning strategy seems logical, even obvious, once you hear it. So why didn’t anyone else apply it? The rules didn’t prohibit collaboration, but most students never even considered it an option.

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Companies often act just like those students. They compete in a market without a clear view of the most effective way to hit their goals. Worse, they don't even think about building a strategy.

Collaboration isn’t always the best move, but it’s always an option. Your business isn’t always a battlefield. The best way to build value in your company might sit in your relationships with suppliers, investors, employees—even competitors. If you must compete, remember: many wars get won without a fight.